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| India-Pakistan |
| Govt hoping to get $500m from WB by Sept |
| 2008-08-02 |
| The government is hoping to get the much-needed budgetary support of $500 million from the World Bank (WB) under the Pakistan Economic Stabilisation Support Operation (PESSO) by September this year, Dawn News reported on Friday. The channel said that the Finance Ministry was expecting that the promised loan would partially ease the economic hardship facing the present government. According to the channel, the WB had promised the loan after Pakistan requested the bank to extend immediate cash support at the World Bank-International Monetary Fund spring meeting in April this year. The channel said that the meeting last spring was attended by former finance minister Ishaq Dar who requested the bank for immediate budgetary support. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 How can a nation of almost 200million be so pathetic? John Frum is probably right about the Loan Forgiveness issue, they probably have no intention of paying it back. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-08-02 11:18 |
| #4 basically they are a proud martial pure Islamic nation of backwards beggars who can't win a war, lie, cheat, riot on a rumor... but demand respect for their fake accomplishments, stature, and a sovereignty they can't even enforce. Punks on a national scale. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-08-02 10:12 |
| #3 Pakistan is a great advocate of the concept called loan forgiveness BTW, that 500m would be a downpayment for those Scorpene attack submarines or the Saab AWACS radar aircraft the Pak military is buying. The WB money just frees up the funding for the military. A small economy like Pakistan can afford to spend the majority of its budget on the military since Saudi Arabia provides oil at discount (or for free) with the West and China providing regular 'budgetary support' and other aid. As Margaret Bourke-White wrote sixty years ago... In the weeks to come I was to hear the Quaid-i-Azam's thesis echoed by government officials throughout Pakistan. "Surely America will build up our army," they would say to me. "Surely America will give us loans to keep Russia from walking in." But when I asked whether there were any signs of Russian infiltration, they would reply almost sadly, as though sorry not to be able to make more of the argument. "No, Russia has shown no signs of being interested in Pakistan." This hope of tapping the U. S. Treasury was voiced so persistently that one wondered whether the purpose was to bolster the world against Bolshevism or to bolster Pakistan's own uncertain position as a new political entity. Actually, I think, it was more nearly related to the even more significant bankruptcy of ideas in the new Muslim state -- a nation drawing its spurious warmth from the embers of an antique religious fanaticism, fanned into a new blaze. Jinnah's most frequently used technique in the struggle for his new nation had been the playing of opponent against opponent. Evidently this technique was now to be extended into foreign policy. .. A Pakistan where the army did not command the lion's share of resources might as well not exist. The Pak oligarchy's foundation myth is built on a sense of Muslim martial superiority. Without that, they have nothing. They've been pretty successful at having their country, basically an unviable entity, supported for the past sixty years on contributions from other nations. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-02 08:50 |
| #2 repay? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-08-02 07:16 |
| #1 How does the government plan to repay a half billion dollar loan plus interest? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-08-02 07:08 |